When the player of a game such as tennis strikes the ball with the region of the racket face away from the middle of the racket frame and toward one side edge of the frame the force of the ball reacting on the racket frequently causes the racket to twist about the axis of its handle with the result that the ball is misdirected from the racket in a direction other than that intended by the player.
This phenomenon was recognized by Ernest L. Newsome, an inventor who procured U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,241 on Feb. 28, 1978 for a "Sports Racket" embodying what he perceived to be a solution to the racket twisting problem. Mr. Newsome's solution was to provide two sets of for the racket, with both longitudinal and transverse strings being disposed in pairs and interconnected, or interwoven, to provide sloped faces extending radially outwardly from a central region of the racket face. This stringing arrangement provided a substantially concave ball-engaging surface on each face of the racket head.
Unfortunately, the Newsome stringing arrangement imparts a couple of undesirable characteristics to the racket as well. Balls struck by the Newsome racket along the center line of the racket face and off center toward either the heel or the tip of the frame engage sloping surfaces which redirect the balls even though the balls thus struck have no tendency to twist the face of the racket. Secondly, because the Newsome racket employs twice as many strings as are present in a conventional racket the central flat region of the Newsome racket is much stiffer, with the result that the prized "sweet spot" of the racket is either lost or impaired.
There continues to be a need for a racket construction which will compensate for twisting of the racket caused by mishitting balls and which will not impair the performance of the racket in other respects.